


Breathe Easier

by nyssanys



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: Drabble, Implied Relationships, Implied Slash, M/M, Tendershipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-09
Updated: 2014-08-09
Packaged: 2018-02-12 10:27:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2106240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyssanys/pseuds/nyssanys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryou and his other half, Bakura, have conflicting personalities, which causes a great strain on their relationship and Ryou's relationship with other people. </p>
<p>This is not a typical shippy fic. It can be read as shippy, or simply friendshippy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breathe Easier

Ryou Bakura, is sweet, innocent, and clueless. His father brought the Millennium Ring home to him and Ryou proudly wore it, not at all expecting to have an evil spirit inside it that would merge with his mind and soul. Who would after all? He was still clueless. He had no idea what was even happening.

Or maybe, he did know and he was letting the spirit take over. Was the spirit clueless instead?

Yami Bakura let Ryou do his daily things like school or whatever, but he was never oblivious as to what was going on. He was on a mission after all. Yugi was his first target with his Millennium Puzzle. How convenient that the two of them were in the same class. Bakura could keep an eye on the Puzzle this way.

When Bakura took over Ryou’s body it was as simple as breathing, but the few times Ryou rejected him, it had been just as easy. Bakura needed a new host body. One that wasn’t so strong. Had he underestimated Ryou all this time?

Ryou understood Bakura’s goals without even communicating with him. Bakura wanted all the Millennium Items. His reasons for wanting them were convoluted to Ryou, but he didn’t ask about them. Ryou wasn’t even sure why he was allowing himself to follow along with Bakura’s mission, but he also knew exactly why: he was lonely. He didn’t have any friends from any of his previous schools; any potential friends were entirely frightened of him. His sister Amane Bakura, was dead. All the letters he had ever written to her were stuffed away in a drawer somewhere because heaven has no postal code. Sometime after Bakura appeared, he had stopped writing letters to her altogether. Following Bakura’s goals led him to Yugi’s group. It was unsafe to call them friends because he knew he would become too attached and end up hurting them like all the others, but he wasn’t as lonely anymore.

And Bakura made him feel less lonely, even if they didn’t talk. Having him there, his presence alone, made Ryou feel better. Even though it was Bakura’s fault that Ryou didn’t have any friends, Ryou wouldn’t blame him. Couldn’t. Because it was just as much his own fault for letting the spirit take over and do as he wished. 

As much as Bakura wanted to reject his host body, he also didn’t want to reject him. Some tiny part of him had grown attached to him. He never admitted this out loud and probably never would. He needed this body to finish what he started and that was that, and that would be all that anyone would ever know, especially Ryou. 

There were a few times, when Ryou was alone usually in his room or a bathroom, he’d cry silent tears, the salty liquid streaming down his cheeks and falling onto his lap. Ryou didn’t make a sound, no sobs or anything. It was these times when Ryou was so weak yet so strong at the same time. It was also these times when Bakura was weakened. He wanted to comfort Ryou but wouldn’t let himself. He’d wait it out, no matter how much it pained him to do so and it got worse every time it happened. Ryou would just splash his face with water and act like nothing happened. No one knew, except for Bakura. 

“Bakura,” Ryou called out one day, the name sounding unfamiliar on his tongue even though it was his own family name. He was sitting at his desk working on homework, but his thoughts were at a distant place. He wasn’t sure why it was now he decided to talk to his other half, after so long.

Bakura translucently manifested in front of him and sat on the desk, arms crossed and one ankle lazily resting on the other. To Ryou’s surprise, Bakura looked just like him, but with wilder hair and sharp, dark gold eyes. “Yes?”

“I can call you that?”

“I don’t really care what you call me.” Bakura’s gaze was unwavering and unsettling. “What is it?”

“Can I tell you something? Would you mind listening?” 

Bakura pressed his lips together, biting his tongue against what he originally wanted to say which would have been something sarcastic and probably hurtful. If Ryou had called on him for such a reason during the beginning there would have been no holding back. Now, however, Bakura by this point having seen Ryou for his true nature and not just as a host body, he stopped himself, took a breath, and replied, “I’ll listen.”

“You may have already gathered as much, because you’re in my mind, but I might feel better saying it out loud to you,” Ryou prefaced. He leaned back in his chair, but was not relaxed. His hands were balled up in his lap. “At first I had no idea you were there at all. I was so confused after the first time I woke up and there were people asking me if I was okay and even more people carrying my friends out on stretchers to the hospital. All I could tell them was that all I remembered was being in school. Everything between the start of the game to when I ‘woke up’ was a complete mystery to me. I truly had no idea.

“And it kept happening that way, school after school I transferred to. After the third time, I felt you there. I didn’t know what to think about you. I wasn’t even sure that you were the one doing it. I thought I was going mad. The schools made me seek counseling because of my friends’ sudden comas. They said it was pretty traumatic and that they were there if I needed to talk, but I couldn’t tell them anything, and I certainly wouldn’t have told them about you. Not to mention that if I had, I would have really been in trouble. They really would have thought that I was mad and I would have probably been locked up somewhere.

“Then I transferred into Domino High and the comas and games stopped. I could tell that you were focused on something. When I pinpointed it as Yugi I thought it was completely strange. ‘What could he want with Yugi?’ I kept wondering. Then Yugi brought in that puzzle of his and knew instantly. That puzzle was just like my ring. I even started to think ‘Does Yugi have a spirit inside him like I do?’ I couldn’t have been sure and I wasn’t about to waltz up to someone I barely knew and ask such a question, but I did start hanging around him. You wanted the puzzle. I wanted to have someone going through the same thing as me, so I could have someone to confide in.” Ryou paused and watched Bakura for a minute, gauging to see if he was really listening or zoning out.

“Yes, I could sense that was the case,” Bakura said. “I didn’t stop you. You were getting closer to what I needed anyway.”

“Right. A win-win for the two of us, huh?”

“Something like that.”

“It was on the island, when we played that duel, that I was certain that Yugi also had a spirit inside him. Even then I could not talk to him about it. There was never a right time and a right place. His friends were always there. I wondered even then if they knew about his other side. How they felt about Yugi if they did know. They seemed oblivious for the longest time.

“I envied Yugi for being able to keep his friends despite the fact that he had two personalities. His friends seem to think nothing different of him. I yearn for that, but I also hate Yugi for that as well. I decided that seeking a true friendship with such a person would hurt me more than benefit me.

“Then I started thinking, ‘Is this what my spirit wants? For me to be alone? For what purpose does my being alone serve him?’ and then I realized that it may not have been what you were doing on purpose. My being alone was more a result of what was happening because you and your mission aren’t exactly pure in nature.

“But I can’t blame you. I wanted to but I could not blame you.”

Bakura shifted and Ryou looked at him again, “You’re not wrong to blame me. I’m selfish and I will do what I have to in order to get my way.”

“I can’t. Bakura, you’re not the only one to blame. I am just as much responsible not because I am your host body but because I’m allowing you to do what you want. I could fight you off, but I don’t.”

“That’s because I’d hurt you if you did. I’ve done that before, the few times you tried. Humans are weak to pain and seem to do anything to prevent being hurt.”

“True,” Ryou fell silent. “It hurt quite a bit and I have the scars to remind me of what you’d do to me if I tried to stop you again.” He looked at the palm of his left hand where a slightly discolored patch of skin remained from when Bakura impaled their hand on the castle spire during the Monster World game. 

Bakura felt a twinge of guilt. 

“I still could have tried. I could have forced you out if I really wanted to. I could have passed on the ring to someone else and given you a new host body but I didn’t. There were so many things that I could have done that I just didn’t bother doing. Admittedly, at first I wanted to, but the twisted part of me liked you being around. Despite our abusive sort of relationship, you were always there and I wasn’t so alone anymore.”

Bakura struggled to swallow. That stung more than he expected it to. 

“Thank you for listening, Bakura, really,” Ryou smiled, but it was pained. “I think that’s what I wanted to say. A part of me just wanted you to know that I like you being around, even if it hurts. I’ve grown attached to you.”

There was a long, uncomfortable silence that followed. Bakura said very softly, “It doesn’t have to hurt anymore.” He felt his own mouth was betraying him, but subconsciously he had grown attached to Ryou, too. Bakura would never admit it. 

Ryou tilted his head just a little and knit his eyebrows together, “Wha-?”

“It doesn’t have to hurt,” Bakura said again, “anymore. I mean if that’s what you want, a better relationship.”

“I--,” Ryou smiled again, but it was different than before. Truly happy. “Yes, Bakura. If that’s what you want as well.”

Bakura slipped off the desk and Ryou stood up. Hesitantly, with caution, Bakura wrapped his arms around Ryou’s small shoulders and leaned into him. The embrace was real, and warm, but Ryou was unable to really touch him back, only barely feel where his body was. Gently, he put his hands on Bakura’s back. The two of them breathed easy and remained there for a long time. This was the closest thing Ryou would probably ever get for an apology but he didn’t care. He didn’t expect the outcome of his babbling to end this way but he was grateful that it had. He couldn’t think of a better outcome. 

The two of them separated and Bakura rested a hand on Ryou’s cheek, smiling because Ryou was smiling. Then he disappeared back into the Ring, but he wasn’t gone. Ryou could still feel him there and every bit of his warmth brightened Ryou’s heart. He was no longer alone. still feel him there and every bit of his warmth brightened Ryou’s heart. He was no longer alone.

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't get this out of my head after I finished watching through the Duelist Kingdom Arc. 
> 
> There are some references to the manga, but I haven't actually read through the manga completely. I mixed the manga-verse with the anime-verse which I probably shouldn't have done because it is so complicated. I am sorry!
> 
> I am thinking of making a series of these drabbles. I have so many just stewing in the back of my mind. So..maybe! xD
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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